The shores of Station Island were completely fringed with bushes, and great care had been taken to preserve them, as they answered as a screen to conceal the persons and things collected within their circle. Favored by this shelter, as well as by that of several thickets of trees, and different copses, some six or eight low huts had been erected, to be used as quarters for the officer and his men, to contain stores, and to serve the purposes of kitchen, hospital &c. These huts were built of logs, in the usual manner, had been roofed by bark brought from a distance, lest the signs of labour should attract attention, and as they had now been inhabited some months, were as comfortable as dwellings of that description usually ever get to be.
At the eastern extremity of the island, however, was a small densely wooded peninsula, with thickets of under-brush so closely matted, as nearly to prevent the possibility of seeing across it, so long as the leaves remained on the branches. Near the narrow neck that connected this acre with the rest of the island, a small block-house had been erected, with some attention to its means of resistance. The logs were bullet-proof, squared and jointed with a care to leave no defenceless points; the windows were loop-holes, the door massive and small, and the roof, like the rest of the structure was framed of hewn timber, covered properly with bark to exclude the rain. The lower apartment, as usual, contained stores and provisions; here indeed the party kept all their supplies; the second story was intended for a dwelling, as well as for the citadel, and a low garret was subdivided into two or three rooms, and could hold the pallets of some ten or fifteen persons. All the arrangements were exceedingly simple and cheap, but they were sufficient to protect the soldiers against the effects of a surprise. As the whole building was considerably less than forty feet high, its summit was concealed by the tops of the trees, except from the eyes of those who had reached the interior of the island. On that side the view was open from the upper loops, though bushes even there, more or less concealed the base of the wooden tower.
The object being purely defence, care had been taken to place the block house so near an opening in the lime-stone rock, that formed the base of the island, as to admit of a bucket’s being dropped into the water, in order to obtain that great essential, in the event of a siege. In order to facilitate this operation, and to enfilade the base of the building, the upper stories projected several feet beyond the lower, in the manner usual to block houses, and pieces of wood filled the apertures cut in the log flooring which were intended as loops and traps. The communications between the different stories were by means of ladders. If we add, that these blockhouses were intended as citadels for garrisons or settlements to retreat to, in cases of attack, the general reader will obtain a sufficiently correct idea of the arrangements it is our wish to explain.
But the situation of the island itself, formed its principal merit as a military position. Lying in the midst of twenty others, it was not an easy matter to find it, since boats might pass quite near it, and, by the glimpses caught through the openings, this particular island would be taken for a part of some other. Indeed, the channels between the islands, that lay around the one we have been describing, were so narrow that it was even difficult to say which portions of the land were connected, or which separated, even as one stood in their centre, with the express desire of ascertaining the truth. The little bay in particular, that Jasper used as a harbor, was so embowered with bushes, and shut in with islands, that, the sails of the cutter being lowered, her own people, on one occasion, had searched for hours, before they could find the Scud, in their return, from an excursion among the adjacent channels, in quest of fish. In short, the place was admirably adapted, to its present uses, and its natural advantages had been as ingeniously improved as economy and the limited means of a frontier post would very well allow.
The hour that succeeded the arrival of the Scud was one of hurried excitement. The party in possession had done nothing worthy of being mentioned, and wearied with their seclusion, they were all eager to return to Oswego. The Serjeant and the officer he came to relieve, had no sooner gone through the little ceremonial of transferring the command, than the latter hurried on board the Scud, with his whole party, and Jasper, who would gladly have passed the day on the island, was required to get under way, forthwith, the wind promising a quick passage up the river, and across the lake. Before separating, however, Lt. Muir, Cap, and the Serjeant had a private conference with the ensign, who had been relieved, in which the latter was made acquainted with the suspicions that existed against the fidelity of the young sailor. Promising due caution, the officer embarked, and in less than three hours from the time when she had arrived, the cutter was again in motion.
Mabel had taken possession of a hut, and, with female readiness and skill, she made all the simple little domestic arrangements, of which the circumstances would admit, not only for her own comfort, but for that of her father. To save labor, a mess table was prepared in a hut set apart for that purpose, where all the heads of the detachment were to eat, the soldier’s wife performing the necessary labor. The hut of the Serjeant, which was the best on the island, being thus freed from any of the vulgar offices of a household, admitted of such a display of womanly taste, that for the first time since her arrival on the frontier, the girl felt proud of her home. As soon as these important duties were discharged, she strolled out on the island, taking a path that led through the pretty glade, and which conducted to the only point that was not covered with bushes. Here she stood gazing at the limpid water, which lay with scarcely a ruffle on it, at her feet, musing on the novel situation in which she was placed, and permitting a pleasing and deep excitement to steal over her feelings, as she remembered the scenes through which she had so lately passed, and conjectured those which still lay veiled in the future.
“You’re a beautiful fixture, in a beautiful spot, Mistress Mabel,” said David Muir, suddenly appearing at her elbow, “and I’ll no engage you’re not just the handsomest of the two.”
“I will not say, Mr. Muir, that compliments on my person are altogether unwelcome, for I should not gain credit for speaking the truth, perhaps,” answered Mabel with spirit, “but I will say that if you would condescend to address to me some remarks of a different nature, I may be led to believe you think I have sufficient faculties to understand them.”
“Hoot! your mind, beautiful Mabel, is polished just like the barrel of a soldier’s musket, and your conversation is only too discreet and wise for a poor d____l, who has been chewing birch these four years, up here on the lines, instead of receiving it in an application that has the virtue of imparting knowledge. But you are no sorry, I take it, young lady, that you’ve got your pretty foot on terra firma, once more.”
“I thought so, two hours since, Mr. Muir, but the Scud looks so beautiful, as she sails through these vistas of trees, that I almost regret I am no longer one of her passengers.”
As Mabel ceased speaking, she waved her handkerchief in return to a salutation from Jasper, who kept his eyes fastened on her form, until the white sails of the cutter had swept round a point, and were nearly lost behind its green fringe of leaves.
“There they go, and I’ll no say ‘joy go with them,’ but may they have the luck to return safely, for without them we shall be in danger of passing the winter on this island; unless indeed we have the alternative of the castle at Quebec. Yon Jasper Eau douce is a vagrant sort of a lad, and they have reports of him in the garrison, that it pains my very heart to hear. Your worthy father, and almost-as-worthy uncle, have none of the best opinion of him.”
“I am sorry to hear it, Mr. Muir; I doubt not that time will remove all their distrust.”
“If time would only remove mine, pretty Mabel,” rejoined the Quarter Master, in a wheedling tone, “I should feel no envy of the commander in chief. I think if I were in a condition to retire, the serjeant would just step into my shoes.”
“If my dear father is worthy to step into your shoes, Mr. Muir,” returned the girl, with malicious
pleasure, “I’m sure that the qualification is mutual, and that you are every way worthy to step into his.”
“The deuce is in the child! You would not reduce me to the rank of a non-commissioned officer, Mabel!”
“No indeed, sir, I was not thinking of the army at all, as you spoke of retiring. My thoughts were more egotistical, and I was thinking how much you reminded me of my dear father, by your experience, wisdom, and suitableness to take his place, as the head of a family.”
“As its bridegroom, pretty Mabel, but not as its parent, or natural chief. I see how it is with you, loving your repartee, and brilliant with wit! Well, I like spirit in a young woman, so it be not the spirit of a scold. This Pathfinder is an extraordinair, Mabel, if truth may be said of the man.”
“Truth should be said of him, or nothing. Pathfinder is my friend—my very particular friend, Mr. Muir, and no evil can be said of him, in my presence, that I shall not deny.”
“I shall say nothing evil of him, I can assure you, Mabel; but, at the same time, I doubt if much good can be said in his favor.”
“He is at least expert with the rifle,” returned Mabel, smiling. “That you cannot deny.”
“Let him have all the credit of his exploits in that way, if you please; but he is as illiterate as a Mohawk.”
“He may not understand Latin, but his knowledge of Iroquois is greater than that of most men, and it is the more useful language of the two, in this part of the world.”
“If Lundie, himself, were to call on me for an opinion which I admired most, your person, or your wit, beautiful and caustic Mabel, I should be at a loss to answer. My admiration is so nearly divided between them, that I often fancy this is the one that bears off the palm, and then the other! Ah! The late Mrs. Muir was a paragon, in that way, also!”
“The latest Mrs. Muir, did you say, sir?” asked Mabel, looking up innocently at her companion.
“Hoot—hoot!—That is some of Pathfinder’s scandal. Now, I dare say, that the fellow has been trying to persuade you, Mabel, that I have had more than one wife, already.”
“In that case, his time would have been thrown away, sir, as every body knows that you have been so unfortunate as to have had four.”
“Only three, as sure as my name is David Muir. The fourth is pure scandal—or, rather, pretty Mabel, she is yet in petto, as they say at Rome, and that means, in matters of love, in the heart, my dear.”
“Well, I’m glad, I’m not that fourth person, in petto, or in any thing else, as I should not like to be a scandal!”
“No fear of that, charming Mabel, for were you the fourth, all the others would be forgotten, and your wonderful beauty and merit would, at once, elevate you to be the first. No fear of your being the fourth in any thing.”
“There is consolation in that assurance, Mr. Muir,” said Mabel laughing, “whatever there may be in your other assurance, for I confess I should prefer being even a fourth-rate beauty, to being a fourth wife.”
So saying she tripped away, leaving the Quarter Master to meditate on his want of success. Mabel had been induced to use her female means of defence thus freely, partly because her suitor had of late been so pointed as to stand in need of a pretty strong repulse, and partly on account of his innuendoes against Jasper and the Pathfinder. Though full of spirit and quick of intellect, she was not naturally pert, but, on the present occasion, she thought circumstances called for more than usual decision. When she left her companion, therefore, she believed she was now finally released from attentions that she thought as ill bestowed as they were certainly disagreeable. Not so, however, with David Muir. Accustomed to rebuffs, and familiar with the virtue of perseverance, he saw no reason to despair, though the half menacing, half self-satisfied manner in which he shook his head towards the retreating girl, might have betrayed designs as sinister, as they were determined. While he was thus occupied, the Pathfinder approached and got within a few feet of him, unseen.
“’T’will never do, Quarter Master, ’t’will never do,” commenced the latter laughing in his noiseless way, “she is young and actyve, and none but a quick foot can overtake her. They tell me you are her suitor, if you’re not her follower.”
“And I hear the same of yourself, man, though the presumption would be so great, that I scarce can think it true.”
“I fear you’re right, I do; yes, I fear you’re right!—When I consider myself; what I am; how little I know, and how rude my life has been, I altogether distrust my claim even to think a moment, of one so tutored, and gay, and light of heart, and delicate—”
“You forget handsome—” coarsely interrupted Muir.
“And handsome too, I fear,” returned the meek and self-abased guide, “I might have said handsome, at once, among her other qualities, for the young fa’an just as it learns to bound, is not more pleasant to the eye of the hunter, than Mabel is lovely in mine. I do indeed fear, that all the thoughts I have harbored about her, are vain and presumptuous.”
“If you think this, my friend, of your own accord, and natural modesty, as it might be, my duty to you as an old fellow campaigner compels me to say—”
“Quarter Master—” interrupted the other, regarding his companion keenly, “you and I have lived together much behind the ramparts of forts, but very little in the open woods, or in front of the inimy.”
“Garrison or tent, it all passes for part of the same campaign, you know, Pathfinder, and then my duty keeps me much within sight of the store-houses, greatly contrary to my inclinations, as ye may well suppose, having yourself the ardor of battle in your temperament. But had ye heard what Mabel has just been saying of you, ye’d no think another minute of making yourself agreeable to the saucy and uncompromising hussy.”
Pathfinder looked earnestly at the lieutenant, for it was impossible he should not feel an interest in what might be Mabel’s opinion, but he had too much of the innate and true feeling of a gentleman, to ask to hear what another had said of him. Muir, however, was not to be foiled by this self denial and self respect, for, believing he had a man of great truth and simplicity to deal with, he determined to practise on his credulity, as one means of getting rid of his rivalry. He therefore pursued the subject, as soon as he perceived that his companion’s self denial was stronger than his curiosity.
“You ought to know her opinion, Pathfinder,” he continued, “and I think every man ought to hear what his friends and acquaintances say of him, and, so, by way of proving my own regard for your character and feelings, I’ll just tell you, in as few words as possible. You know that Mabel has a wicked malicious way with those eyes of hers or when she has a mind to be hard upon one’s feelings?”
“To me her eyes, Lieutenant Muir, have always seemed winning and soft—though I will acknowledge that they sometimes laugh—yes, I have known them to laugh; and that right heartily, and with down-right good will.”
“Well, it was just that, there. Her eyes were laughing with all their might, as it were, and in the midst of all her fun, she broke out with an exclamation to this effect—I hope ’t’will no hurt your sensibility, Pathfinder?”
“I will not say, Quarter Master, I will not say—Mabel’s opinion of me is of more account than that of most others.”
“Then I’ll no tell ye, but just keep discretion on the subject. And why should a man be telling another what his friends say of him, especially when they happen to say that which may not be pleasant to hear. I’ll not add another word to this present communication.”
“I cannot make you speak, Quarter Master, if you are not so minded, and perhaps it is better for me not to know Mabel’s opinion, as you seem to think it is not in my favor. Ah’s! me—if we could be what we wish to be, instead of being only what we are, there would be a great difference in our characters, and knowledge and appearance. One may be rude, and coarse and ignorant, and yet happy, if he does not know it, but it is hard to see our own failings, in the strongest light, just as we wish to hear the least about them.”
“That’s just the rationale, as the French say, of the matter; and so I was telling Mabel, when she ran away, and left me. You noticed the manner in which she skipped off, as you approached?”
“It was very observable—” answered Pathfinder, drawing a long breath, and clenching the barrel of his rifle, as if the fingers would bury themselves in the iron.
“It was more than observable—it was flagrant—that’s just the word, and the dictionary would’n’t supply a better, after an hour’s search. Well, you must know, Pathfinder—for I cannot reasonably deny you the gratification of hearing this—so you must know, the minx bounded off in that manner, in preference to hearing what I had to say in your justification.”
The Leatherstocking Tales II Page 35
